With the scratching of Splintex, cult-hero SHELBY SIXTYSIX (Toronado – Storm Kite) gets a crack at a Gr 1 when he lines up in the $600,000 The Galaxy at Rosehill on Saturday.
That’s great news and lots of people will be happy as this horse has captured the heart of the punting public.
But what is extraordinary and pretty much unprecedented in modern times is the fact he will be racing for the 10th time in 97 days!
That’s a race every 9 days for the past 4 months in a row.
To stay up this long is a testimony to a horse’s constitution but also to his trainer’s awareness of equine needs, habits, traits, safety et al. Danny Williams, who paid $150,000 for him as a yearling, has had the now 5YO ever since and just loves him.
“We didn’t have enough money to buy him at the time, but I just loved how he walked and the presence he had so I took the step of faith,” he said.
To get this much racing out of him over so many weeks in a row was not even possible three years ago when Williams discovered there was something off with him.
“The vet discovered he has a bone disorder and I was told he wouldn’t race very much, certainly not as a young horse, so to see him now, loving his racing and thriving is a tremendous thrill.”
You can see that it is with Williams who part-owns him. Tears well up in his eyes when he talks about his horse.
Right now Shelby has banked $353,015 for his connections and because he loves a wet track he is weighted to run a blinder in The Galaxy.
His rise through the ranks has been astonishing when you consider on 11 December when he started this run of races, he was beaten a head in a lowly Class 2 Highway at Randwick!
Since then he has raced pretty much every week, along the way being beaten into 11th spot in a Class 2 Highway, then losing by nearly 2 lengths a Class 2 at Bega, then when the rains started to fall he went down in a Highway by a nose after hitting the lead, near home.
That race, under Willy Pike and on day one of the four weeks of heavy rain in Sydney, proved to be the tipping point.
He won a Class 2 Highway at his next start easily on a heavy track, then one week later rose about 300 grades and ran in the Gr 2 Challenge Stakes where he ran past the great Nature Strip at WFA and then chased down Eduardo failing by a head.
Last start, on a Heavy 9, he flashed home on the slowest part of the track to win the Gr 3 McCarten beating his rival here Rule Of Law by over a length.
In an era where trainers tend to keep their horses in cotton wool and not race them enough, Danny Williams and Shelby Sixtysix are proving that the term race horse is one that should be honoured more than it is.
He has a tremendous chance in The Galaxy based on his past three efforts and carries again, no weight.
